


Ai's Birthday

by Yoshistar123



Series: Uta No Prince Sama - More trash mostly [1]
Category: Uta no Prince-sama
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Happy Birthday Ai, I've been waiting two months for this, M/M, holy crap it's Ai's birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-01
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:02:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22971439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yoshistar123/pseuds/Yoshistar123
Summary: I'm so bad at titles oh my lordBasically it's Ai's birthday now so I thought I'd write something it's all just ReiAi trash I'm not sorry
Relationships: Kotobuki Reiji/Mikaze Ai
Series: Uta No Prince Sama - More trash mostly [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650841
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	Ai's Birthday

Ai liked to relax on his birthday. As an idol, he spent almost everyday working hard on jobs and live shows, which barely allowed him a chance to rest. Don’t be mistaken, however, Ai loved his job. He was quite literally built for it, after all. Yet, even someone such as he couldn’t deny that it was nice to get a chance to rest once in a while. Especially when Reiji had the day off as well.

“Good morning Ai-Ai! Happy Birthday!!!” Reiji burst into Ai’s bedroom (though they shared it basically all the time, so it may as well be their bedroom) with all the energy of an exploding star. A normal person would be scared out of their mind if this had happened to them, but A) Ai was used to it by now and B) Ai was not what one could call “normal”, unless you come from a dystopian society made of robots. Because today was Ai’s birthday, he had decided to forgo setting his alarm, meaning that Reiji somehow woke up before him, as normally Reiji was the last member of Quartet Night to rise from the realm of slumber. Most people would expect it to be Ranmaru, yet the bassist was too fond of his morning jogs to wake late, so the late riser position fell to Reiji.

Lifting his head from the pillow to see his chaotic boyfriend, Ai registered the cup of coffee in one hand, and the wrapped parcel in the other. The coffee was placed on Ai’s bedside table, and Reiji flopped onto the bed beside Ai. As Ai pulled himself into a sitting position the small box was pressed into his hands.

“Oh. Thank you, Reiji,” Ai spoke with a tired smile (he had just woken up after all). He inspected the gift, before methodically tearing off the wrapping. The paper fell away to reveal a brand new set of gaming headphones, one of the best ones on the market. Ai blinked his eyes in what he vaguely registered as shock as he admired the sleek headphones in his hands. His current headphones were starting to wear out from use, and he’d been meaning to buy some new ones, but he hadn’t even known that Reiji had noticed. The fact that Reiji had noticed and gone out of his way to get one of the best quality sets available, brought a smile to Ai’s face. Every time Reiji did something so caring like this made his heart beat faster and reminded him so blatantly of how much he loved this big loser.

Leaning into Reiji’s side, Ai wrapped his arms around his waist in a tired and lazy imitation of a hug. “Thank you,” he muttered into Reiji’s ear, the soft smile still on his face as he leant his head on Reiji’s shoulder, the contact sending sparks through his body, yet it was pleasant nonetheless.

Reiji returned the hug easily, joy flooding through him at how much Ai clearly loved the present. And there was more to come later! “No need to thank me, Ai-Ai! I’m just glad you like it.” Reiji grinned, before standing up and dragging Ai with him. They had the whole day to relax and enjoy each other’s company, and the evening would be spent with the whole of Quartet Night together (unfortunately, Ranmaru and Camus still had work that day – the photoshoot for their latest duet and the recording of the song would be taking up most of their day. They had already headed out just an hour earlier), where they could have what would undoubtably be an impressively sweet cake (any cake in the Quartet Night household ended up hilariously sweet; thank you Camus) and give their gifts to Ai. If Ai thought Reiji had only bought him one gift, he was dead wrong.

The sun shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Quartet Night’s shared apartment. Reiji’s initial plan had been to make breakfast, but considering how late Ai had slept in (rather than waking at 5:00am as normal, he had slept all the way through to 10:30am, when Reiji woke him up. Ai blamed this on Reiji: his bad habits were clearly rubbing off on him) Reiji wondered if it would be better to just wait for lunch instead. Or, rather than spend 10 minutes thinking about it, he could just ask Ai.

“Do you want breakfast, or we could just wait until lunch? I can make something real quick now If you want,” Reiji asked, turning to Ai who had followed him out of his bedroom, the still warm cup of coffee in his hands. Anyone who walked into the apartment would be able to tell that Ai had only just woken, as his hair was dishevelled, and his eyes were half shut. Days of sleeping late and waking early will do that to a person, even someone like Ai. “Or do you just want to go back to bed? You look pretty tired.”

Taking a sip of coffee, Ai thought about his options. Sleep did sound good right now, the last few nights he’d been up late working so he did need it. Looking towards their TV, he took note of the stacks of movies underneath it. He had always been meaning to watch Detective Pikachu (he heard from numerous people that it was good, plus as someone interested in gaming the Pokémon franchise intrigued him) after all. “Let’s watch a movie. I heard that Detective Pikachu was good, so I’ve been meaning to watch it for a while.”

Reiji, like the adorable loser he is, had already seen Detective Pikachu in the cinema the day it came out, so he 100% supported this decision. Well, he supported basically all the decisions Ai made, unless they were particularly stupid, which was rare considering that Ai was the smart and logical one, and Reiji was always the one suggesting less than bright things (even so, Ai still went along with these decisions just to see Reiji smile; he deserved happiness after all that he had been through and if Ai could help bring him that happiness then he damn well would). “Yeah! Let’s do it!” Reiji grinned, vaulting over the back of the sofa like a maniac, causing the still-tired Ai to chuckle at his antics.

Ai headed back into his (their) room quickly to grab a blanket as Reiji pulled the DVD out of the box and loaded it up on their TV (yes, they bought the DVD. That wasn’t even Reiji’s decision, it had “appeared mysteriously” after Ranmaru arrived home one night). As Ai sat down next to Reiji on the sofa, Reiji wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him closer. Wrapping the blanket round both him and Reiji, Ai rested his head on Reiji’s shoulder and watched as the movie started playing.

Normally, Ai had no problem with staying awake to watch movies. He’d heard about people falling asleep whilst watching, but personally he’d never understood how. Surely if you were enjoying the movie, you’d stay awake to watch it? And Ai enjoyed watching movies, though he tended to take a more analytical point of view when watching. Yeah, the plot is good and all, but Ai enjoyed seeing all the effects and figuring out how they produced them. He enjoyed analysing every little detail about the movie, so it seemed strange to him when he felt himself falling asleep in Reiji’s arms (somehow, sometime during the movie Ai had ended up snug on Reiji’s lap, his warm arms wrapped around him as he leaned back against Reiji’s chest). It wasn’t as if Ai had gotten no sleep at all, his battery wasn't low, and Detective Pikachu was living up to expectations (Ai had to agree with the people; this was a good movie), so why was he falling asleep? It’s just, Reiji was so warm, so comfortable. So… relaxing. Snuggling further into Reiji’s hold, Ai felt his eyes begin to fall shut. Giving into temptation, he let his body go lax as he fell asleep in the comforting warmth of his boyfriend’s arms.

Reiji himself at this point in time was ascending to a higher plain of existence. Ai was preciously adorable normally, but asleep in his arms like this? Reiji thought he was going to spontaneously combust at this rate. Ai was actually beautiful. Gorgeous, angelic even. Reiji mentally smacked himself, damnit, his gay was showing. He couldn’t help it, not when this damn angel fell asleep on him like this. He also felt incredibly honoured. Ai didn’t relax often, so to be responsible for this… Reiji felt a hopelessly loving smile rise on his face. Looking back at the screen, Reiji realised they were only about halfway through the movie. He could afford to get some sleep as well, right? Ai would probably wake towards the end of the movie anyway, he wasn’t one for taking long naps (or naps at all, actually, this was truly a blessed occasion), so they probably wouldn’t spend the whole day sleeping, right? Right? Uhhh… Reiji wasn’t sure. Then he realised he didn’t care; falling asleep with Ai was 100% worth it. He readjusted his arms around Ai, before gently pulling both himself and Ai to be laying down on the sofa, Ai safe in Reiji’s hold. Tugging the blanket that was almost lost to the cold, cold floor back over the both of them, Reiji joined Ai in the realm of sleep.

If someone had walked into the apartment 10 minutes later, they would have seen Ai and Reiji wrapped in each other’s arms, the poor blanket lost to the void of the floor, both sleeping calmly, with a barely noticeable smile on each of their faces.

Slowly blinking his eyes open, Ai scanned his surroundings, recalling where he was at the moment. The first indication Ai had that they’d been there for a long time was that the TV had switched itself off, which was mildly concerning considering it took like 2 or 3 hours for that to happen. The next indication was when he checked his internal clock, only to be slightly horrified when he realised he had been sleeping for just over 4 hours. And from the warmth radiating through him, he could tell that it wasn’t just him who had fallen asleep. It was a pleasant warmth, not the type that made him feel like he was going to overheat, but the kind that reminded him of how much he loved the idiot in his arms. And it was just like Reiji too, to fall asleep without setting any kind of alarm to make sure they didn’t spend the whole day sleeping. Ai sighed, he supposed he should’ve taken that factor into consideration before he had fallen asleep himself. Whoops. Too late now, Ai thought. And it wasn’t like the whole day was wasted, it was only just coming up to 3:00pm.

Snuggling closer to Reiji, Ai leaned in and gently pressed his lips to Reiji’s cheek, before pulling back and speaking quietly, “Reiji, wake up.” Reiji shifted slightly on the sofa. “Reiji. Wake up,” Ai spoke more forcefully, pushing his forehead against Reiji’s. He watched as Reiji’s eyes blinked open slowly, still heavy with sleep.

Reiji tightened his arms around Ai, “Ai-Ai?” He spoke, his voice rusty, “what time is it?”

“We seem to have slept until 3:00pm. Perhaps it would have been better if one of us had set some kind of alarm?”

“Oh,” Reiji chuckled. He realised that was probably his mistake. Then he noticed that he’d just had 4 hours of beautiful, uninterrupted sleep with Ai, and realised he didn’t care. There was still plenty of time left in the day, Reiji thought. “So, what do you want to do now then?”

Ai was confused by Reiji asking him what they should do; normally Reiji took the lead when it came to how they spent their free time. That isn’t to say that Ai never made decisions, it just normally fell to Reiji as Ai tended to not mind what they did (and Reiji was always so enthusiastic that Ai was more than happy to follow along). He realised that Reiji was probably asking because it was his birthday, but in all honesty Ai had no idea what he wanted to do – he didn’t normally get this much free time, and more often than not his free time was spent alone as the others (including Reiji) still had to work. “I’m not sure to be honest. I’m sure you probably had a few ideas though, correct?”

“Yep! Are you sure there’s nothing specific you want to do though? We have all day to do it.”

Ai shook his head and smiled at Reiji. He cared so much about Ai and his interests and honestly Reiji was just the most adorable thing oh my Lord someone protecc this man.

“I’m sure. What did you have in mind?”

Reiji brightened in excitement, quickly sitting up on the sofa. Once again Ai was pulled up along with him, though it was not unwillingly. Ai was reluctant to untangle himself from Reiji, so he pressed himself as close as possible as Reiji stood up from the sofa.

“Let’s bake a cake! A birthday cake for you so that we can eat it when Ran-Ran and Myu-chan get home!”

Ai smiled, shaking his head in feigned exasperation, “Ok, sure. This can’t go too badly.”

If you expected this to go horribly wrong, as Ai hinted, you’ll find you are the one who is wrong. Reiji, unlike certain others I can name (*cough cough* Natsuki *cough cough*), can actually bake, so currently it was actually going quite well.

“Reiji, did you preheat the oven?”

“Uhhh… whoops?”

Ok so it could have been going better.

Whilst they had followed the recipe, so the end result would most likely be edible, the kitchen had become a mess. Today Ai learnt that even if alone when baking you made absolutely no mess, it was unavoidable when baking together. Ai liked to keep things tidy, so you should understand how serious this was. There was flour on seemingly every work surface (somehow) and there were about a million bowls that would need to be scrubbed to death after they were done. Ingredients lined the table – Ai thought that they should probably put the ones they were done with away, but so far they just hadn’t – and Reiji had managed to get flour in his hair. Ai was more impressed than anything else – how did he get flour in his hair? Well, it was Reiji, Ai supposed. Even so, with the chaotic catastrophe that the kitchen had become, the cake batter was ready to go in the oven and it actually looked like cake batter.

Setting the oven to preheat, Ai looked back over Quartet Night’s shared kitchen. This would need to be cleaned before Ranmaru and Camus got home, or else Ranmaru would probably kill them for leaving his precious kitchen looking like a war zone. That, and the fact that Ai hated messes himself. There was a reason why his bedroom was always impeccably organised – how Reiji lived with his bedroom an absolute mess Ai didn’t know (actually he did – Reiji just slept in his bedroom instead, sneaky bastard) – so it would be ideal if they could clean up this mess as quickly as possible.

Ai turned back to the oven quickly to make sure he’d set it to the right temperature, and when he went to look back over the kitchen, he found his disaster boyfriend standing right in front of him, with a sneaky grin on his face. Ai didn’t trust it, and for good reason. Reiji was definitely up to something. Scanning the kitchen and finding nothing out of the ordinary (except for the huge mess, but that could be dealt with after this), he looked back at Reiji when said man reached a hand up and ruffled it in Ai’s hair.

Ai shook his head, confused over Reiji’s actions, when a white powder fell down in front of his face.

“Did you just put flour in my hair?”

Reiji looked ready to run, and for good reason. Ai was not afraid to fight back, “Perhaps?”

Grabbing the box of flour off the table, Ai lunged for his boyfriend, only missing by a few centimetres as Reiji absolutely legged it to the other side of the kitchen. Shoving his hand into the box, making sure he had as much flour in his grasp as possible, Ai closed in on his target. Reiji had somehow managed to back himself into a corner, and suddenly a better idea came to Ai. Instead of simply rubbing the flour into Reiji’s hair, he reached up and emptied the entire box over his head.

There was silence in the kitchen for a second, before it was broken by Ai’s giggles. Reiji looked completely dumbfounded, as if he hadn’t expected Ai to retaliate. Well, maybe not to such a large degree. He didn’t take long to recover, however, as he joined in with Ai’s laughter (it was such a beautiful sound, and to see Ai so carefree left Reiji dying to join in) whilst trying to shake flour out of his hair. The sounds of laughter echoed throughout the apartment, only increasing in volume as a disgustingly large amount of flour fell from Reiji’s head and hit the floor and every surface in a 1m radius.  
Even with the voice in the back of his head reminding him that this would need to be cleaned up, Ai found that he didn’t care about the mess at that current point in time. To be able to experience such joy at such a meaningless and ridiculous thing made Ai feel weirdly human, and it made him happy. Reiji made him happy. He was happy.

Ai’s thoughts became dangerously gay, before he was snapped out of it by Reiji reaching up and poking him on the nose. He reflexively drew back, before tilting his head in confusion at Reiji’s actions. Reiji, who was currently giggling to himself, held up his phone with the camera open so Ai could see what he had done. There was flour on the end of his nose and honestly, Ai would normally be annoyed but looking at the state of Reiji he realised he probably wasn’t qualified to be annoyed about a tiny patch of flour when Reiji’s entire body was covered. He was almost proud of his achievements.

A quiet chuckle escaped Ai’s mouth at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. The kitchen, Reiji, himself. They started baking totally clean and had come out not. Speaking of baking, the oven had finally finished preheating. Leaving Reiji’s side to quickly put the cake into the oven, setting the timer for 25 minutes, Ai realised that both of them would need a shower before they could even start to clean the kitchen.

“You know, I should probably regret this but for some reason I don’t,” Ai spoke. This is the part where normally he would press himself as close to Reiji as possible, but it would be easier to clean if only one of them was completely covered in flour instead of both of them.

"It’s because you’re having fun! This is my promise to you; as long as we are together, I’ll make sure you’re happy.”

Ai’s face heated up; even after so long Reiji could still make him blush. Turning away to hide said blush, he headed towards Quartet Night’s shared bathroom, “We both need a shower. Are you coming or not?”

“Yes Sir!”

Emerging from his bedroom in fresh, clean (not flour-covered) clothes, his hair towel dried and fluffy, Ai was ready to tackle the disaster that their kitchen had become. Reiji followed behind him, no longer coated in flour. It turned out that getting flour out of one’s hair when it is soaking wet is definitely a two person job; good thing that there was two of them. Ai still didn’t regret dumping all the flour on Reiji’s head – he deserved it (and it was funny).

The timer dinged in the kitchen to signal that their cake had finished baking. Heading into the kitchen to pull the cake out of the oven, Ai had the rude reminder that the mess wasn’t over – they still had to ice it. Reiji followed, seemingly surprised at the total mess of the kitchen, despite the fact that he was responsible for at least half of the carnage, if not more.

Placing the cake on a cooling rack so it could cool down to a point where they could ice it, Ai and Reiji got to work cleaning the kitchen. Firstly, the used ingredients went back into their respective drawers, empty boxes disposed of in the bin. Then, all the used cutlery, bowls and plates went into the dishwasher to be cleaned. And there were a lot of bowls to be cleaned; Ai was honestly impressed. The various items that couldn’t be cleaned in the dishwasher went on the side to be washed later, and the tables were wiped clean of flour, followed by the floor. By the time they were finished, the cake had cooled.

“Right, icing time!” Reiji cheered, pulling out the icing sugar. It went about as well as you would expect.

Well, the cake was iced. Unfortunately, so was the table. Well, Ai thought to himself, at least it’s only the table and not the floor/ceiling/themselves. That would be infinitely more annoying. As for the cake itself, it didn’t actually look that bad. Realistically, it looked almost edible. Even with the disaster that the kitchen had been left in afterwards. Maybe Ai needed to give Reiji more credit for his baking skills; he’d made a huge mess but a good cake somewhere along the way.

The icing itself was a lavender colour (Ai’s cake, duh), and of course at this point so was the table. Food colouring was messy. Honestly it did actually look pretty good; the icing was smooth on the surface of the cake and the whole had been topped off with light blue, green, lavender and dark red sprinkles (it was hilariously representative, though it had taken Reiji forever to go through all the sprinkles they had and pick out those specific colours. Ai warned him, but he did it anyway).

Considering that the whole baking thing had taken them a couple of hours, what with the making of the mixture, the cooking of the cake, the resurrection of the kitchen and the icing of the cake, it was nearing the time for Ranmaru and Camus to come home. Checking their schedules, Ai realised that they were actually due to be home in the next 10 minutes, just before dinner. Oh crap. Dinner. They’d been so busy with the cake that they’d kinda forgotten about that.

“Reiji, Ranmaru and Camus will be home soon. What are we going to do about dinner?”

“Don’t worry Ai-Ai, I’ve got this!”

Ai was scared.

By the time Ranmaru and Camus had returned to the apartment, Reiji had somehow managed to throw together something for dinner and was now in the process of cooking it (sometimes Ai forgot how good of a cook Reiji really was). The cake sat on the side ready for later, and Ai had spent the last few minutes sitting at the kitchen table watching Reiji cook and wondering how such a moron could be so damn perfect.

Upon Ranmaru and Camus’ arrival, the whole of Quartet Night was together for the first time that day. And as we all know, when all of Quartet Night is together it’s either going to be brilliant or chaotic. But because it was a special occasion (Ai’s birthday is pretty damn special ok he’s amazing) this time, it was both.

“Happy birthday, Ai.” Camus nodded to Ai as he placed a well wrapped present on the table next to him. Ranmaru followed, wishing Ai happy birthday as well whilst leisurely yeeting (I’m not sorry) the gift in his hand at him, where it was easily caught thanks to Ai’s quick reflexes.

“Thank you,” Ai replied, smiling softly at the two of them, before inspecting the gifts that had been handed to him. Upon unwrapping Ranmaru’s gift he found a Quartet Night branded phone case, which fit perfectly onto his phone.

“I know that you don’t have one so… and the design is obvious,” Ranmaru explained, being incredibly bashful and turning away from Ai as he spoke.

“Good point, actually,” Reiji jumped in from where he was cooking, “why don’t you have a phone case, Ai?”

“I never drop it.”

“But phone cases are so coooooool!”

“Damn right,” Ranmaru backed up Reiji (for once). Ranmaru was a little biased though, considering that his phone case was hella stylish (it was from a rock concert he had attended in previous years and he hecking loved it).

“Well, I have one now.” Ai admired the phone case; Ranmaru had picked a good one. He wondered what lengths Ranmaru had gone to to acquire it.

Picking up Camus’ gift next, Ai would’ve had to have been an idiot to not figure out that it was a book. Which book it was, however, Ai had absolutely no idea. Only one way to find out (actually there were multiple ways Ai could’ve found out, however it would have been a complete waste of time because he could just, open the gift).

A copy of Carry On sat in his hands. Ai gently placed the book on the table, careful not to damage it, and then covered his mouth with his hands. ‘Oh my God’, Ai thought to himself, ‘no way. No. He’s here.'

“I saw the way you were immediately absorbed into it when we went to that library a few weeks ago, so I took it into my own hands and got it for you. I’ve read it myself and admittedly it is an extremely good book; you have good taste.” Camus filled the silence left by Ai’s non-reply (he hadn’t expected Camus to even notice how much he had been interested in the book, let alone that he’d read it as well. Ai was definitely going to be reading this as soon as he had the chance).

“Thank you,” Ai whispered into the space between his fingers, a small smile on his face as he finally started to get over the rush of whatever it was (gay fangirling) that had caused him to react like that.

Reiji himself was dying a little on the inside. Yep, the gay thoughts are back! How could he help himself when Ai was being absolutely completely adorable? Who am I kidding, Ai is always adorable. When he smiled like that, oh my God Reiji was going to die. Once again he was reminded of how lucky he was to be able to call this precious angel his.

Chasing away the gay thoughts for a second, Reiji noticed that Ranmaru and Camus had joined Ai at the kitchen table and that they had (surprisingly) started a conversation about the lyrics for their latest songs.

“Your first line in Poison Kiss, did you steal that from one of your solos?” Camus spoke, looking at Ranmaru in a show of civil conversation (Reiji thought they must be on their best behaviour for Ai’s birthday, or maybe they were finally starting to get along. He hoped it was the latter)

“What, you mean ‘I’ll rock you hard’? I mean yeah I did, but so did all of you so it’s not like I was the only one.”

“I mean I did take mine from the end of Winter Blossom, and you took yours from one of your songs, so it looks like we are all at fault,” Ai pointed out, his face neutral but his words ever so mildly teasing. If you didn’t know him you wouldn’t be able to tell. Fortunately, Reiji did know him.

“And mine came from Dekiai Temptation. Wow guys we are so original.” Reiji smiled as he started to dish up their dinner for the night (a personal favourite of Ai’s – he totally didn’t plan this. Totally).

“Stop exposing us like this,” Ranmaru bit back, his words sharp but his voice contained no malice whatsoever.

“Hey!” Reiji tried to defend himself, “Camus started it!”

“Excuse me, I did no such thing,” Camus lied.

Ai watched their back and forth, a feeling that could only be called fondness rising in his chest. If every day was like this, with harmless banter instead of shattering arguments, then Ai would believe he had died and gone to Heaven (even though he did not believe in God – he couldn’t see any form of logic behind it, not that he had a problem with people who did believe; he just couldn’t see it himself).

Sliding their plates along the table, Reiji joined the rest of Quartet Night as they finally started to eat their dinner. Their conversations could wait for later.

After dinner, Quartet Night retired to the living room. Camus in the corner drinking tea from his overly posh tea set (he’s like that ok) and Ranmaru on one half of the sofa filling the room with the sounds of his bass guitar, not that anybody minded – the background music was pleasant. Reiji was sat on the other half of the sofa, his arms wrapped snug around the Ai in his lap, who had already started reading Carry On. Reiji was totally not reading it over his shoulder or anything (he was already invested in the story – he hadn’t even met the character, but he could tell that Baz was 100% gay – gaydar or intuition? Probably both). The whole room was relaxed, and Ai was ready to conclude that it was probably the best birthday he’d ever had. Little did he know that it wasn’t over yet.

“Oh yeah,” Reiji broke the not quite silence (Ranmaru was still playing bass), resting his head on Ai’s shoulder, “we still have that other present to give you.”

“You do? You already all gave me a gift though. Surely that is enough?”

Ranmaru shook his head, “We all came together to get this one – I mean with all that you do you definitely deserve it.”

Camus nodded his agreement, before standing to retrieve the present from the depths of his bedroom. He returned with a neatly wrapped cuboid that Ai had no idea of the contents. Camus gently set the gift down on the sofa (was the gift fragile?) next to Ai, before standing back to let Ai open it. He would have told him to be careful with it, but this was Ai and not say, Reiji, so he would likely be careful with it regardless. The room was silent as Ai started to unwrap the present.

A new laptop. A brand new, top of the range laptop. The design was sleek and undamaged (thankfully) and wow Ai had never felt this close to crying over a gift before. Of course Ai knew of the model, it was one of the most expensive ones out there, and he understood why they had bought it together. What he didn’t understand, however, was why they had bought it at all.

“Why?”

“What do you mean, why? It’s your birthday isn’t it?” Ranmaru scoffed.

“Well yes, but this is such an expensive gift. Why go to such lengths for me?”

Reiji hugged him tighter against him, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe how Ai didn’t understand, “Because you’re amazing and you deserve it and where would Quartet Night be without you?” ‘Where would I be without you?’ went unsaid.

Ai clutched the laptop to his chest, “thank you,” he spoke, a soft smile on his face. Even Ranmaru and Camus felt like they’d been shot through the heart because holy crap that smile made the whole thing 100% worth it. Reiji felt like he had just ascended to heaven.

Ranmaru was the first to recover from the sudden rush of appreciation. Damnit why was Ai so precious even Ranmaru knew it. He leaned back on the sofa and watched as Reiji recovered (just after Camus had gone back to drinking his tea) and immediately started squeezing Ai to death. Ranmaru genuinely couldn’t tell if Ai liked it or was deeply suffering.

“Get a room, you two,”

Ai snorted quietly as Reiji nearly fell off the sofa (nearly taking Ai with him too), standing up and heading to his room, looking back to make sure Reiji followed him (and to make sure he brought Carry On – it was important), watching as Reiji tried and failed to defend himself.

“Hey now Ranmaru, like you’re any better.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Reiji grinned, “oh nothing. Good night guys!” He then followed Ai into his bedroom and shut the door, leaving Camus to question what just happened and leaving Ranmaru to wonder if he’d just been forcibly ejected from the closet.

Once safely inside Ai’s room, Reiji made sure the door was shut behind them. Turning to see that Ai was already preparing for bed (it was quite late by now, after all – and Ai had work tomorrow).

“By the way, I have one last present for you.”

Ai immediately paused in his actions. Another one? They’d already given him so much.

“And before you try to say that you don’t need it and that we already got you loads I’m going to tell you now that if you don’t open this present or if you deny that I should’ve gotten it for you I will literally die on the spot, ok?”

Ai, who had been about to do literally both of those things, shut his mouth, quietly accepting the small velvet box that Reiji seemingly pulled out of nowhere (He’d had Ranmaru hold on to it until this very moment to ensure that Ai would have no idea of its existence - Ai was so disgustingly observant that it was almost impossible to keep things hidden sometimes) as he sat down on the bed. He opened the lid, revealing a silver bracelet with threads of Ai’s signature purple and Reiji’s signature green weaved into the sides. As he gently lifted it out of the box to see it more clearly, Ai did actually start crying. He clutched the bracelet to his chest as his eyes filled with tears and he became overwhelmed with deep emotion.

Reiji, who had previously been standing a little way away from the bed, immediately swept in and pulled Ai into a hug. Ai clutched Reiji’s shirt as sobs wracked his body (Ai didn’t understand why he was crying – he wasn’t upset, quite the opposite), shoving his face into Reiji’s shoulder and unceremoniously soaking his shirt with his tears – Reiji’s problem not his. Reiji rubbed his hand up and down Ai’s back – he had almost expected this, based on Ai’s reaction to the laptop and the knowledge that understanding feelings wasn’t really Ai’s area of expertise. He gently pulled Ai away from him so he could wipe the tears from his face; ok Reiji was starting to have regrets because at this rate he was going to start crying as well oh my God.

“I’m sorry,” was whispered quietly into the space between them.

Reiji was shocked, “Why are you sorry?”

“You went to all this effort to get me a gift and I started crying. I don’t even know why – I’m not upset.”

Reiji smiled softly at Ai, “It’s because you’re happy, Ai. People cry when they are happy too.” He pulled Ai close again, gently kissing his forehead.

Ai shook his head from his place against Reiji’s chest, leaning up and kissing him properly on the lips. Reiji leaned into the kiss, before slowly breaking away to pull Ai to lay down with him on the bed. The bracelet itself was placed out of harm’s way on the bedside table as Ai snuggled into Reiji’s hold, each of them wrapped in the other’s arms. Ai slowly managed to calm himself down, the warmth of Reiji surging through him as the tears started to stop falling and his breathing came back under his control. The only light in the room, Ai’s desk lamp, was turned off as tiredness caught up with both of them.

“Thank you, Reiji,” Ai whispered into the quiet, "I love you."

"I love you too," Reiji replied quietly, pulling him closer to his chest, as both of them slowly fell into the realm of sleep.

“Did you notice that Reiji and Ai made a cake?” Camus asked Ranmaru, both of them still sitting in the living room. They really were starting to get along better; Reiji would be pleased.

“They did?”

“Yes.”

Ranmaru stood up from the sofa, placing his bass carefully to the side. He stepped into the kitchen to find the cake, which he had overlooked earlier. Well, Ranmaru was never one to turn down free food.

“Think they’ll complain if we eat some?” He called back to Camus.

“I sincerely doubt it, and even if they did it would be too late.”

Ranmaru grinned, grabbing the cake and two plates before heading back to join Camus in the living room.

Half the cake was gone by the time Reiji and Ai woke the next day (it had been a very good cake).

**Author's Note:**

> KOE O KIKASETE  
> KAMI O NABIKASE  
> AH LESSON OF THE NIGHT  
> SLOWLY SLOWLY
> 
> I love Quartet Night  
> Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


End file.
